Needham Heights station is an MBTA Commuter Rail station in the Needham Heights neighborhood of Needham, Massachusetts . It is the terminus of the Needham Line . The station has one low-level side platform with a mini-high section for accessibility serving the single track of the Needham Branch.
7-603: Highlandville station opened around 1860 as an infill station on the New York and Boston Railroad ( Charles River Branch Railroad ). It was renamed Needham Heights in 1907. It became the terminus of passenger service on the line in 1932. The station was rebuilt during the 1979–1987 closure of the Needham Line. On June 1, 1853, the Charles River Branch Railroad was extended from Newton Upper Falls into Needham as
14-471: A location between existing stations. Such stations take advantage of existing train service and encourage new riders by providing a more convenient location. Many older transit systems have widely spaced stations and can benefit from infill stations. In some cases, new infill stations are built at sites where a station had once existed many years ago, for example the Cermak–McCormick Place station on
21-652: The New Haven Railroad 's Midland Division in 1898. Around 1900, a movement began to change the name of the Highlandville neighborhood. Needham Highlands was rejected for the similarity to Newton Highlands ; on May 28, 1907, the post office was renamed as Needham Heights. The station was also changed to Needham Heights by November 1907. In 1906, the New Haven opened the Needham cutoff , a faster route to Boston that avoided
28-479: The closure, making Needham Heights fully accessible . The mini-high platform was indefinitely closed on September 8, 2022, with a portable lift used for accessibility; it reopened by early November. [REDACTED] Media related to Needham Heights station at Wikimedia Commons Infill station An infill station (sometimes in-fill station ) is a train station built on an existing passenger rail , rapid transit , or light rail line to address demand in
35-569: The first stage of a line to Dover and beyond. The railroad was not able to follow its original plan to go through the East Village, Needham's historical center, because one landowner refused to sell. Instead, it was routed to Great Plain station in Great Plain Village further to the east. A station at Highlandville was added around 1860, by which time the line was under control of the New York and Boston Railroad . The line became part of
42-611: The rival Boston and Albany Railroad 's Highland branch tracks. The line through Needham was thus downgraded from an intercity route to a branch line. Loop service jointly run by the B&;A and the New Haven operated over the cutoff and the Highland branch via Needham from 1911 to 1914; after that, most Needham trains originated at Needham Heights. Service between Newton Highlands and Newton Upper Falls ended in 1927, and between Needham Heights and Newton Upper Falls in 1932, leaving Needham Heights as
49-411: The terminus of the line. The Needham Heights station building, a gable-roofed wooden structure, was removed in the 1960s. The MBTA bought Penn Central 's southside commuter rail assets, including the Needham Line, on January 27, 1973. The station was closed with the rest of the line from October 13, 1979 to October 19, 1987 during Southwest Corridor construction. A mini-high platform was added during
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